gretzkyscores:fireclown:CSB: I made a policeman get a warrant to search my car once. I just sort of wanted to see what would happen. He radioed in, and the legal aces back at the station got a judge to issue a warrant. A cruiser dropped it off about an hour and a half later, they searched my trunk and found nothing. Looking back, it wasn't a good way to spend an afternoon.

*fist bump to fireclown*

Actually, IMO, forcing the cops to follow protocol is an *excellent* way to spend an afternoon. Would that more of us were willing to invest the time necessary to keep our public servants "honest", especially when we have nothing to hide. Perhaps if we did so en masse, over time cops would learn to not be so cavalier about citizen's rights, searches and search warrants.

I got tired of the moldy mulch on the side of my house, so I decided to replace it with those tiny white rocks. I went to home depot and got 6 50 lb bags of the stuff. Which went into the trunk of my mustang as I had no other vehicle. Now having 300 lbs in your trunk will lower your car a significant amount. Just so happens on the way home, I blaze through an orange light. I dunno, it was sort of yellow, sort of red. Of course there was a cop there.

He seems interested in the height of my car."You car is really riding low."*This will be a fun time to be a smart-ass, I think* (it wasn't)'Well sir, thats probably because I have over a hundred kilos of rock in the back'"You have...what?"'I have a bunch of bags of cracked rock'Well that got his attention.30 seconds later I was handcuffed on the side of the road. 5 minutes after that there was about 4 more squad cars there. Oh, and a dog for some reason.They asked permission to search my trunk. Well, not so much asked, as they took my keys and opened it.Officer: What. The. Fark?Me: Like I said, a hundred or so kilos of cracked rock.

You know, I thought we'd all have a good laugh about it. There was no laughing. Not so much as a smile. What there was, was about an hour and a half of 'warrent checks'.

Oh and as far as running that redish-yellow light. You bet I got a ticket for it.

RandomRandom:Giltric: Solution.....talk to all local landlords and ask them for a key to the house/apartment and permission to enter their property to answer a complaint.

That's not how US law works.

The resident of a house has 4th amendment rights, not just the landlord. Even if the landlord gives the police a key, they still need a warrant. (And thank god we don't have a 2-class 4th amendment, one for home owners and another for renters. We have enough class division as it is.)

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The 4th Amendment, it's your friend.

The 4th is antiquated like the 2nd.I'm sure the founders couldn't see a future world where people play loud annoying dubstep throguh a 1000 watt stereo system keeping everyone around the neigborhood awake.Electricity hadn't been invented yet.....neither was dubstep

Jefferson would have probably been the first to complain.....by putting a .60 caliber ball round through the hipsters forehead.

consider this:BolloxReader: Those are, in my view, far more important violations than anything noise related (unless you are testing sonic weapons). Noise ordinances are about neighbors not being compatible, that is the long and the short of it. And the police shouldn't be the solution to a cultural problem.

So I could move in next to you, blast my stereo 24 hours a day, extra loud while you were trying to sleep, just for the lulz, and you'd just accept it and find somewhere else to live?

I had a neighbor do this, but for an even dumber reason

we were half of a shotgun house. and everyday, we noticed that our neighbor's music was blaring... blaring to the point of shaking the walls and vibrating the floors. so, I'd knock on her door like crazy to get her to turn it down... she'd never respond.

finally, one day I stopped her outside her place, and said, why do you keep your radio so loud all day?

she said, oh, I do that because when I leave for the day, I want people to think that I'm home so they won't rob me.

i told her that the only reason someone would rob her is because now they know she has a good stereo system.

/ everything else she owned has garage sale junk... like literally scrap and junk. was happy to find a new place.// plus, this is new orleans. I'd rather have my house robbed while I am away from it. if they want to rob you, your presence in the house is absolutely immaterial. actually, it might be a bonus, it means they don't have to break in, they just have to knock on the door.

Aarontology:In those situations, a search warrant would be necessary to get inside, but that could take a couple of hours, if it's successful, and police Chief Sam Hargadine said that wasn't a good use of his officers' time.

Following the Constitution is not a good use of his officers' time.

That's also what I zeroed in on coming to the thread. However, I think it means more that his officers could be better used "fighting real crime" rather than obtaining a warrant because Harriet the Retired biatch needs to stick her nose in everything and act like she's bothered by folks at 3AM even though she was already awake watching Matlock on bootleg VHS.

If you pay attention to subtext, you know that's exactly what he means. I mean seriously. Harriet isn't going to "know how to turn on a DVD". Of course it's VHS!

Think like a college student. Opening the door to the cops means they could see something illegal.

Or maybe they're just hoping they'll go away and think it's too much of a hassle to get a warrant over a noise complaint.

But surely making it so that they'll show up with a warrant to actually come in makes it more likely they'd see something illegal?

Yeah, it doesn't matter what the warrant is for, any criminal activity is considered a valid search under our absurd laws. The warrant can really be for anything, once inside it's all fair game.

Give it five years tops, and you'll see these hard on crime conservatives asking why we need warrants at all.

For the first part, warrants aren't free tickets to search for anything the police feel like. The nature of the warrant and the specifics of the search parameters have to be defined.

For the second, that's an awfully generous assumption. I'd argue less than 2 years.

That's cute, you think there are still limits to the power of a police search.

They get real vindictive if you don't answer the door.

CSS - A few months after we bought this house a neighbor reported a prowler to the police. They showed up and knocked on our door as neighbor said he had been in our yard too. We'd had a bbq and few cocktails and were asleep. The front door is a good distance from our bedroom and slept through it all.They showed up the next day to tell me that they had searched our 3 outbuildings,2 vehicles and an RV. Cocksucker was smirking when he told me this. We were new in the area and he felt the need to show authority. My response "Oh no, you found our meth lab."So yeah, go ahead and be asleep or just refuse to answer your door.

My post college apartment was right at the edge of the college slums (hey, it's Boston - what apartment *isn't* on the edge of a college slum?). Our cheap ass apartment was in a building with a mix of college kids and young professionals, tipped maybe 65-35 towards the kids. They would party, and make noise, and sometimes it was a pain in the ass, particularly when we had to go to work in the MA and they didn't, but it didn't happen often - end of semester, big game weekends, etc, and my roomie & I were always welcome to come over an have a beer or three with them. Heck, we were only two or three years older, and not that far removed from the same behavior.

One fine fall day, We got a pamphlet shoved under the door. It was from the college, informing us that if our apartment were to be 'raided' by campus or city PD, we would be subject to academic probation, suspension, or even expulsion. Neither my roomie or I had never attended said college, nor had any other affiliation to the school.

ThrobblefootSpectre:College students being self-absorbed asshats annoying everyone within a city block around them while avoiding any social responsibility? Wow, there's a surprise.

A noise ordinance. The horror! Someone dust off a copy of the constitution and start gibbering about it.

I know! If only there was some place besides a college town these lovers of absolute peace and quiet could live... I live at a tourist beach, and I am constantly going to city council meetings to introduce ordinances to keep these damn tourists away.

I just moved to DC. My roommates threw a housewarming jam for a few friends, and the cops were called. The cops showed up, asked us to turn it down, then offered the following suggesting to one of my roommates: "Quit smoking weed, too. We don't want to have to come back."

Why yes, we are white - why do you ask?

// cops in NW DC have better things to do than tell us to keep it down// they had to yell over the gunfire

Sybarite:I don't see why they have to bother with the provision about whether or not someone answers the door. Why not just set clear noise ordinance guidelines and fines for violating them, then have the cops write a citation and leave in on the front door the same way you would a parking ticket on a car?

Because that wouldn't result in arrests, which look great come budget time. If you get a chance to wander around a college party, you're going to find a bunch of petty nonsense: underage drinking, maybe some marijuana if you're lucky. Suddenly you are no longer essentially a meter maid, you are an ainti crime crusader whose job must be protected.

CSB: I made a policeman get a warrant to search my car once. I just sort of wanted to see what would happen. He radioed in, and the legal aces back at the station got a judge to issue a warrant. A cruiser dropped it off about an hour and a half later, they searched my trunk and found nothing. Looking back, it wasn't a good way to spend an afternoon.

In those situations, a search warrant would be necessary to get inside, but that could take a couple of hours, if it's successful, and police Chief Sam Hargadine said that wasn't a good use of his officers' time.

He's got a good point, civil rights are kinda a waste of time.

I mean, it's worth their time to ticket some underage kids at their residence for drinking alcohol (gasp!111!!) but following the constitution, fark, they're not made of time okay, they have murders and stuff to solve.

Mangoose:On one hand, that is a blatant violation of the law and the police chief should be let go and then charged. On the other hand, fark teenagers. Those guys suck.

So, if you had a time machine, once you killed Hitler the first thing you'd do is go back and sodomize high school you with a baseball bat. Good to know, fascist dick.

DammitIForgotMyLogin:It's not that they're refusing to let officers in, it's that they're refusing to come and answer the door.

Personally, having lived next door to some annoying farktards who loved playing loud music at all hours of the night, i'd support just evicting the douchebags, rather than pansying around with a small fine.

Aarontology:In those situations, a search warrant would be necessary to get inside, but that could take a couple of hours, if it's successful, and police Chief Sam Hargadine said that wasn't a good use of his officers' time.

Following the Constitution is not a good use of his officers' time.

When asked for comment he said "The Constitution is too damn annoying. We do want we want. Whateva! We do what we want"^Actual pic of Police Chief

No need for alarm, it's just for when the little douchebags throw parties and feel that they don't have to answer to their neighbor's pleas that they tone it down a bit. I'll withdraw support the instant this is used to bust anyone and everyone for the sake of revenue. That should take about a week or so.

Slightly off-topic, but idiots in my state don't seem to realize that, as imperfect as our marijuana legislation is right now, it'd make it so that you can answer the door to cops with a joint in your hand and they won't be able to touch you for it. Rawrgle fargle.

In those situations, a search warrant would be necessary to get inside, but that could take a couple of hours, if it's successful, and police Chief Sam Hargadine said that wasn't a good use of his officers' time.